Chapter 270: Uncle Qiao, He Was Lured Away
"Woof!"
At first, Eggplant hesitated. After all, his wife was here, so how would that look with two women petting him?
But considering they had spoken up for him just now, if they really wanted to pet him, each could pet him once.
So, Eggplant took two steps toward the two women.
The two women smiled in delight and reached out to pet him.
"Oh!"
Before they could fully react, Eggplant had already turned around and left quickly, leaving them stunned by how fast he had gone.
"Cough!"
"Don't mind him, Eggplant is just embarrassed," Meng Ci explained.
The two women showed understanding.
Eggplant, on the other hand, had already run over to the eagle and was circling around it, letting out small whimpering sounds. Judging by his sheepish behavior, he was probably explaining things to the eagle.
After saying goodbye to the two women, Meng Ci and Shen Que took one last walk around before heading home.
Once home, thinking about the endless soil in the space, Meng Ci poked Shen Que.
"How about we take out some of the soil from the space?" Meng Ci suggested.
Since it was infinite, taking out some for these people to study wouldn't hurt.
"Sure."
Without wasting any time, Meng Ci immediately took Shen Que, Eggplant, and the eagle into the space.
Each of them held a hoe in their hands and began to dig the soil from the pile.
Only after loosening the soil could they smoothly transport it outside.
Seeing their master working so hard, Eggplant and the eagle came over to help as well.
While they pretended to help, they were mostly just playing and enjoying themselves.
With ample time inside the space, they didn't have to worry about suddenly being kicked out.
In this way, Meng Ci and Shen Que toiled diligently for over ten hours inside the space, finally digging out a large pile of soil.
After completing the task, they all took a refreshing bath inside the space and then left, feeling satisfied.
It was late at night, and the timing was perfect. They couldn't wait to head out for their mission.
Each of them wore a pair of night-vision goggles and quietly snuck into the undeveloped land in the villa area.
After confirming that no one was around, under the cover of night, Meng Ci carefully took out all the soil from the space.
Once everything was set, the two slipped away silently.
The two men, along with the wolf and dog, were too tired from digging and ended up sleeping until noon the next day.
However, they had no idea that, at that very moment, the people at the base were extremely excited because of that pile of soil.
After testing, they were astonished to find that the soil's fertility was beyond imagination, even superior to the Lou soil from before the apocalypse.
Without wasting any time, the experts brought the soil back to the laboratory for further research.
Someone took a portion of the soil and began an experiment. To their surprise, they found that the soil was perfectly suitable for planting when mixed with deactivated soil at a one-to-two ratio.
This discovery filled everyone in the laboratory with excitement, and they felt as if they were looking at the future.
Others took some of the soil for more in-depth experiments, attempting to analyze its components to see if they could replicate this miraculous soil.
Meanwhile, after finishing dinner at home, Meng Ci and Shen Que headed out, leading Qiezi and the eagle.
They deliberately took a detour, and upon seeing a crowd gathered around the pile of soil, they felt relieved.
When they arrived at Zhao Jingyu's house with Qiezi, they were surprised to find only Zhao Jingyu and Liang Xiu at home; Qiao Moyan was nowhere to be seen.
Meng Ci, curious, asked where he was.
Zhao Jingyu snorted in response.
"Where else would he be? Of course, he went to see Lu Chen."
Because Qiao Moyan had saved Lu Chen, the latter often sent people to deliver food as a token of gratitude.
Qiao Moyan, feeling undeserving, rejected the gifts each time.
However, the soldiers who delivered the food were silent and left quickly, too fast for Qiao Moyan to catch up with.
With no other option, Qiao Moyan sent the items to the military district, where Lu Chen would avoid meeting him personally, only letting the soldiers tell Qiao Moyan to keep the gifts for himself.
After a few more attempts to refuse, Qiao Moyan reluctantly accepted the gifts.
But after a while, he felt that continuing to do so wasn't right, so this time, Qiao Moyan took the items, planning to return them again.
Zhao Jingyu explained what had been happening between Lu Chen and Qiao Moyan and gave his opinion.
"I think Lu Chen has a thing for Uncle Qiao, so he's trying every means to get Uncle Qiao's attention."
Zhao Jingyu crossed his arms, wearing an expression as if he knew nothing.
Meng Ci was shocked.
"What did you just say?"
Captain Lu likes Uncle Qiao? Impossible.
It couldn't be one of those cases where someone repays a life-saving favor by proposing.
It's not that Lu Chen and Uncle Qiao aren't a good match.
It's just that Qiao Moyan had experienced trauma from the tunnel incident and might have some fear of men.
If Lu Chen were to force himself on Qiao or confess too suddenly, wouldn't that scare Uncle Qiao?
After all, I was the one who brought Qiao Moyan back, and it was also me who brought him together with Lu Chen. If anything happened to Uncle Qiao, I couldn't let that happen.
Meng Ci got up, deciding to head over to the military base to see what was going on.
But just a few steps from Zhao Jingyu's house, he spotted Qiao Moyan returning, accompanied by two soldiers.
"Uncle Qiao," Meng Ci called out as he approached.
Qiao Moyan spotted Meng Ci and smiled, waving him over.
"Little Meng, Little Shen, there you are! I just got two fish. Let's cook up some braised fish, and you two should stay for dinner."
Qiao Moyan shook the carp in his hand and said to Meng Ci and the others.
"Sure," Meng Ci agreed.
He then glanced at the two soldiers. If he recalled correctly, these two were from Lu Chen's squad.
After seeing the two soldiers off, Meng Ci and the others headed back to Zhao Jingyu's house.
"Uncle Qiao, did Captain Lu say anything weird to you?" Meng Ci asked directly.
Qiao Moyan, upon hearing this, carefully thought back.
"No."
Qiao Moyan didn't remember Lu Chen saying anything strange, and in fact, he thought Lu Chen was a good guy who cared about his people.
"Captain Lu is a good leader. I only treated two injured military dogs, and he gave me these fish in return."
Qiao Moyan actually had no intention of accepting any reward from the beginning.
After all, without the protection of these soldiers and military dogs, the zombies outside could never be completely eliminated.
However, Lu Chen was very firm. If Qiao Moyan didn't accept the gift, he would no longer allow him to treat any soldiers in the future.
Looking at the injured military dogs, Qiao Moyan knew Lu Chen was a man of his word.
Reluctantly, he accepted the gift.
Though he still felt a bit reluctant, he couldn't say no to Lu Chen's insistence.